Sunday, October 9, 2011

The last year has been a whirlwind of activity and excitement. We are now living in Scott AFB, IL. Ava is almost walking. I am a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Eliza is going to a full day of kindergarten. And Terah is managing the whole show! Oh and we added and lost one pet. (Thunder cat added, Rainbow fish subtracted).

So how did we get here?

Ava has enjoyed wonderfully good health. Besides an occasional ear infection (She got tubes) and eating/pooing difficulties, she has done wonderfully. The prophylactic antibiotics she receives each day have held off any UTIs. Additionally, she is seeing very well. We switched opthamologists and the new one took her glasses away and corrected her Exotropia in both eyes. The procedure went smoothly but she had horribly bloodshot eyes for a few weeks. But she was so blessed...her eyes are nearly perfectly straight and she can control them much better. Almost immediately, her attention span and interaction with her environment greatly increased. Her development has hugely benefited from the surgery.

Her development is about 1 year behind the norm but we knew that was likely from the get-go so it's not a surprise. She uses little ankle braces to stabilize her walk. She can almost balance without help and loves to cruise around next to the furniture. She can say a few semi-words: "Da", "Ma", "Ba" are her favorites. She also can sign all done. But still the best thing about her is her loving, cuddly spirit. What she is missing in her DNA is not missing in her spirit. For example, if you kiss her cheek she will grab your ears and pull you closer and switch cheeks until you have been kissing her cheeks for 5 min!She is a joy.

Eliza's joy is school. She loves to learn and to socialize. Although separating from some good friends in San Antonio was difficult, she has already made several new friends here on base that keep her busy. In school, she is learning to read, basic math, and lots of safety. She is constantly stopping, dropping and rolling as she well learned during fire safety. What a spark of energy.

Terah has been very busy as well. She also left behind several good friends in the Alamo city but has made some good friends here through the church, MOPS (Mothers of Pre Schoolers), and the spouses clubs. Terah has also enjoyed having extra time with Ava now that Eliza is at school all day. She is our strength.

This last year for me has been fruitful in our family as well as professionally. After a year long internship at Texas Physical Therapy Specialists, I graduated from the Army-Baylor Doctor of Physical Therapy program. To my great surprise, at the graduation, I received an award for a group research project that I lead. A month later, I took and passed the national exam and received my license to practice.

With all that done, we received orders to move to Scott AFB on the Illinois side of St Louis. We live on base in a nice 1 story home in a good neighborhood, very close to the bus stop. We decided to rent our house out in San Antonio since selling it would have lost us $20K. We waited a month before our first tenent moved in. We have had a few maintenance issues but nothing horrible difficult.

I also want to give a shout out to Debbie and Melvin (Terah's parents) for flying out and helping us drive up from Texas. Melvin loves driving and listening to country songs. We saw some beautiful country.

So, we are settled in and collecting nuts for the winter. We will see some snow this year. I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. Heavenly Father has definitely shown His love and mercy to us. We will plant our new seeds here and grow another home. Living the Dream.